GRANT (Robert). - Lot 116

GRANT (Robert). Born in Boston. 1852-1940. American novelist and Boston judge. M.A.S. "Robert Grant", in English. S.l.n.d. 2 pages in-4. This manuscript, which bears the following annotation at the head of the first leaf "A passage from Their Spirit (written after visiting Rheims Cathedral August 1916)", is an extract from his book entitled "Their Spirit - some impressions of the English and French during the summer of 1916", (Houghton Mifflin Cie, 1916).Reims Cathedral was bombed from the start of hostilities in 1914, and the damage caused by the heavy shellfire was impressive. VRobert Grant, who arrived on the scene two years later (in 1916), bears witness to the destruction that turned the Gothic cathedral into a "martyred monument", and was reassured by the cathedral's fleeting first impression ...it is less badly damaged than I feared... [...I was looking at the lacerated, riddled, calcined remnant of what had once been a thing of supreme beauty...". And he borrows these words from Pierre Loti ...It gives the impression of a huge mummy, still upright and majestic, but which a breath would reduce to ashes... [Grant confirms the extent of the damage he describes throughout his text. He notes that the magnificent façade has been disfigured by the ricocheting impacts of bombs that first fell on the forecourt. The statues are mutilated, but it was difficult to determine exactly how much damage had been done, as they are covered with sandbags. Inside, fire damage exceeds bomb damage. ...Nearly all the priceless glass is gone. Only one half of the celebrated rose-window remains... [Nearly all the priceless glass is gone. ...Pigeons roost on the capitals of the columns and their feathers are everywhere.... At the end, in a pathetic exclamation, he is incensed that almost nothing has escaped injury ...[the] portions of the structure, both inside and without have escaped injury, but as a whole it is terribly disfigured and defiled..., [the] portions of the structure, both inside and without have escaped injury, but as a whole it is terribly disfigured and defiled..., [the] portions of the structure, both inside and without have escaped injury, but as a whole it is terribly disfigured and defiled..., [the] portions of the structure, both inside and without have escaped injury, but as a whole it is terribly disfigured and defiled].